My mutterings on life, thoughts and actions.

Cheltenham

I read on This is Gloucestershire this morning that Cheltenham has decided that the numbers of houses they should cater for is unappealing and that they should lop 10,000 off their 28k quota. This has not been agreed with the other members of the Joint Core Strategy, and even their own planning officers were urging caution. So when you consider Stroud wouldn’t take part, Cheltenham is now shirking its responsibilities and there is NIMBY fighting all over the place about where new houses should go, is the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) working for Gloucestershire? At the moment it looks like another “Localism” idea gone bad.

The Joint Core Strategy was the County response to the Government taking away the national guidelines and telling local areas just to get on with it. And it seems that this “getting on with it” is not really working, especially when you consider the Sellars Farm decision, and many of the local areas are spending a lot of time saying why they shouldn’t get the houses. Don’t get me wrong, it was not all sweetness and light under national direction, the national guidance on Parking is still having huge ramifications on places like Kingsway, but where I worry more is around issues like the Social Housing provision and Affordable housing. Also, as we have already seen, Localim works both ways (for developers as well as residents) and it seems that the say of residents doesn’t carry the same weight as a developer (again look at Sellars Farm).

This decision by Cheltenham, using potentially dodgy figures and without consulting the JCS partners just shows how belligerent people are getting about it and starting to hunker down in their own area bunkers!

So should we be worried. Quite frankly yes, it seems to be going the way of who shouts loudest wins, with a splash of teddy throwing. I only hope that common sense will prevail and the JCS can be put back on track. But how much effort is being put into keeping everyone sweet with the plan,. rather than executing it, and therefore just how much money is it saving?

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The news in the Citizen last night about how the Gloucester Magistrates Court is going to be restricted in use to just a couple of days a week with most of the work going to Cheltenham and Stroud really worries me in terms of restricting justice as well as delivering cuts by the back door.

A while ago (2010), there was huge debate about closing Magistrates Courts and I was one of those (a JP at the time) who argued against the proposals to go down to just two courts, and at the time it seemed sence prevailed and Gloucester was spared the chop.

However it seems that it all catches up with us because the court is now going to two days per week with all work going to Cheltenham and Stroud. We are assured that this is not down to cost, but what other excuse could there really be. For me, none of my original arguments have changed, this is bad for those having to attend court, many of which find access difficult enough as it is. Those in the Forest have a huge Journey to Cheltenham or Stroud. Also don;t forget the poor JP in this too, they are volunteers, and will now be making much larger journeys to do this and we don;t need new JP’s to be put off, and losing the diversity of the bench because it’s just too much inconvenience to handle.

There is a small positive light that this could be showing and that is that the levels of crime have gone down sufficiently that there is no need for justice to be presided over, however I don’t really believe this is the case, but it’s maybe more about where the justice is being handled.

Consultation (yes another one) is open on the Join Core Strategy. This covers housing development within Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury over the next 20 years. However, because Stroud has declined to take part, this means that Quedgeley and Hardwicke will still be at huge risk of its infrastructure being over stressed by the continual dumping of homes and development on the Gloucester/Stroud border.

Stroud District Council seems to have a habit in recent years of dumping its development requirements on the edge of Quedgeley/Hardwicke, which is over developing the area and before long, the local infrastructure is just going to “pop”. Take Hunts Grove, that development is growing at pace, and yet they have no real local amenities therefore they (quite logically) will be coming into Quedgeley for Shops, Doctors etc. And rumour has it that another batch of houses is ready to be agreed to extend Hunts Grove again, but more on that when I get it.

So with no communication and more importantly co-ordination between Gloucester and Stroud, our hopes that we would see an end to the local development in order to let the community grow and flourish, looks to have been dashed!

There have been many discussions and outbursts and name calling about plans and the lack of for having a new Railway Station on the Railway Triangle. There is also talk of having a new “Parkway” station at Elmbridge. The Railway Traingle seems to be scuppered on a commercial basis, that apparently the Network Rail refuse to build a new station (though I would still like to see the official paperwork) and the Elmbridge idea is being dropped too. However a great opportunity would be to have a smaller station just outside Quedgeley that would help the many commuters who live in the Quedgeley, Kingsway and Hardwicke areas to have a viable alternative to get to Bristol, Cheltenham, London and Swindon. It would be a fantastic addition to the area.

Now as far as I am aware, there are no plans, I’m mealy working off a comment made in one of the stories on TiG, but what a sensible idea. When you consider that a lot of people moving into the likes of Kingsway, Quedgeley and the newer housing developments are people who commute, it could really benefit local residents. As well as that, it could support the current bus Network by providing another way of getting into the city.

My Main office is in Bristol, near Filton-Abbey Wood station. There is a train that runs from Gloucester to Filton (and beyond) which can get me into the office and back to Gloucester pretty well. The downside is that I can’t get to the station in a timely manner and the commute ends up being around 2 hours door to door each way, so that’s 4 hours before my 8-10 hour day. it’s just not on. But with a Quedgeley Station, I could make it much easier and cheaper, especially being able to use my bike too. It could easily serve london trains as well which would be a huge bonus. That is just me, I know a lot of people who work in various parts of Bristol and drive in, not to mention Cheltenham and Swindon. They might even put an extra carriage on too!

So it seems, to my mind, a very good idea, and it would be great to see if Network Rail would be willing to at least look and maybe model it. I wonder who I would have to talk to about it? I think with the reality of no viable plan for the Railway Triangle, this could be a real asset to the City and tot he immediate local area.